Don't Worry, I Told Them You're Not A Girl
by Kyra Rivers
Summary: The moral of this story is not that gender doesn't matter. Rather, it's about how Akira was bored, and if her classmates wanted her to help search for the mysterious crossdressing girl they'd heard about, who was she to argue? [AkiraxTakumi]
1. It Begins

**Title**: Don't Worry, I Told Them You're Not A Girl (Now Go Make Dinner)  
**Part**: 1 of ?  
**Series**: Mai-HiME  
**Rating**: PG-13  
**Pairing**: Akira/Takumi, various other mentions  
**Warnings**: Crossdressing, gender confusion, light swearing, Akira being bored, and too many gender stereotypes to count.  
**Notes**: I hope to have the next chapter up in a couple weeks if everyone enjoys it -- and please, any helpful suggestions or criticisms are more than welcome! Also, if anyone has read my other story "Hot", yes, it _is_ the same Tsuyoshi and Ichiro. I like reusing characters. ;D In any case, enjoy!

* * *

_Chapter One: It Begins (Or Jumps On Board Sometime In the Middle)_

The moral of this story, I must emphasize to all parties involved, is not that gender doesn't matter. Nor is it about misconceptions, misdirections or misinterpretations in regards to gender or sexuality or any of those peculiar human states of being. Though perhaps the moral might connect in a fine spider-web strand to the concept of rumors and their ability to spin wildly out of control, that too is not what it is all about.

While some might protest this, citing recurring themes or use of metaphor or however it is that people protest such things, the moral of the story is that Akira was bored.

Okuzaki Akira was as of two weeks ago fourteen years old and in her second year at Fuuka Academy junior high school. She got good grades -- enough to satisfy her father, who despite having called off one of her ninja cousins to check up on her weekly and insure her safety and wellbeing, now insisted that she call him herself to inform him of just how well she was holding up the family name. It wasn't enough to label her a bookworm (which she wasn't), nor to make any of the teachers expect stunning results from her (which she had no motivation to give), so in regard to school, Akira was doing fine.

The way it went down was this: Akira was a crossdresser. All gasps aside, she had a decent reason for doing so in the beginning -- saving the world from certain destruction and all that --, but now that said Saving the World was over, Akira was in a bit of a bind. Literally, in fact. Her body had officially hit the mysterious and agonizing state of puberty, which didn't really bother Akira except that it meant her breasts were getting bigger. And so were her hips. And while _some_ girls had the good luck to be blessed with boyish figures (Mikoto, for instance, was _two years older_ than Akira and still had nothing), Akira was not so fortunate.

Problem was, how do you come out as a female crossdresser without inciting a year of giggles and whispers and other Very Annoying things?

As far as Akira could tell, there wasn't any way.

So she continued on into second year as a boy, still rooming with Takumi -- which, surprisingly, wasn't as awkward as Akira had imagined it might be -- and dressing to hide her curves. At first, she entertained thoughts of just showing up one day in a girl's uniform. Perhaps if she just _did_ it, it wouldn't be so much of a shock and the gossiping would die down faster. (Which was a total lie and Akira knew it, but pretending was fun.) Her best plan was to wait until high school came around and transfer schools, but she didn't want to leave Fuuka Academy. For one, her friends (specifically Takumi) were here, and for another, her father would kill her for giving up the scholarship.

In short, Akira was stuck.

And currently, she was bored.

The entire class was supposed to be having free study time to work on their group math projects, which would be due next week. What they were _actually_ doing was separating into various small groups and chatting, math projects tossed aimlessly aside. And normally in situations such as this, Akira would be talking with Takumi, but _he_ was over talking to the teacher because, "Akira-kun, I really don't understand how this logarithm works and there's a test next week..." Coupled with the Tokiha tendency toward puppy eyes, Akira couldn't even offer to help him herself before Takumi had already made his way to the front of the room.

So she was left to sit bored in her corner, doodling on her sketchpad. It wasn't that Akira didn't _have_ friends other than Takumi, because she chatted with people in her class often enough. But with the exception of a few, Akira didn't really like most of the boys -- they were all loud and too intent on strutting about for her tastes. (It didn't help that Akira was naturally rather shy _anyway_, which was hard to work with when one was posing as a self-assured, manly boy.) And while girls were generally calmer, practically all of them went into blushing fits whenever Akira said anything so much as, "Will you lend me a pencil?"

(For the record, Akira was still planning to find whoever it was that started the whole "Number One Hottie" title and _kill them_.)

Luckily, Akira was also rather popular. (Possibly due to the aforementioned title, which really just made her want to bury herself alive with embarrassment. Yet _another_ thing that would make it Really Incredibly Awkward to come out as a girl.) Almost as soon as Akira had resolved herself to utter boredom for as long as it took Takumi to get help, a pair of boys made their way over to her desk. They scuttled in such a way that Akira was sure they thought they were being very stealth, but really just looked like they were paranoid.

Akira raised an eyebrow when the two boys stopped by her desk, waiting for them to start off.

"Um," began the first, Tsuyoshi, glancing at his partner in crime.

"Uhh," the shorter Ichiro mumbled, trying his very best not to look like he was at a loss for words and failing miserably.

Akira sighed, then asked, "What do you want, guys?"

"We need your help," Ichiro said, breaking out of his awkward stance and grabbing a chair. He swung it around to sit on it backwards, leaning forward enough that he could speak quietly to Akira. Tsuyoshi looked around for anyone who could be listening, and for goodness' sake, all he had to do was whistle if he wanted to be more obvious about it. Akira steadfastly ignored how blatant he was being and gave Ichiro a perplexed look.

"Do you want girl advice again?" Akira asked. "Because I told you, I don't _try_ to--"

"No!" Ichiro interrupted, holding up a hand. "No, no, no, it's nothing like that."

"Well, it's kind of like that," Tsuyoshi interjected.

"No it's not! Nothing at _all_ like -- well, _that_," Ichiro argued, the tips of his ears blushing bright red. Akira fought the urge to roll her eyes, recalling the day that a lovestruck Ichiro had pleaded with her to teach him how to seduce women. Takumi had practically burst a lung laughing once they were back in their room, and had only stopped when Akira stormed off into her secluded section and sulked for a good ten minutes. (And even then, the mere mention of the incident still made Takumi snicker.) Clearly, Ichiro was trying to forget the entire situation.

"What he means is, we don't want 'girl advice' girl advice, but we do want your help on something," Tsuyoshi explained, sitting in an empty chair and giving up the pretense of being the lookout. "Something about girls."

Now, perhaps a year ago, this would have sent Akira into a fiery panic about acting manly and avoiding women and Abort Mission and all that. Now, however, Akira was a lot calmer about the entire situation. For one, her family wasn't insisting on the crossdressing anymore, which meant that she wouldn't disgrace her clan by being found out. Also, she had been doing this for an entire year and only _one_ person found out, and he was her roommate and didn't count. So Akira, while feeling a residual twinge of worry when Tsuyoshi mentioned girls, didn't do much more than blink.

Besides, she _knew_ Ichiro and Tsuyoshi. If anyone was going to figure out her secret, it definitely wasn't going to be them.

"Okay," Akira said slowly. "What about girls?" She glanced over at a group of their female classmates sitting by the window, talking animatedly about something. "Those girls?"

"No," Ichiro said. His eyes were bright with barely contained excitement. "_Another_ girl."

"We heard something," Tsuyoshi shared, crouching closer to the two of them and whispering. "From my brother's girlfriend -- I think she's his girlfriend -- _but_ she told us that--"

"There's a girl in our school," Ichiro interrupted, ignoring the irritated frown that flashed on Tsuyoshi's face. "A girl whose _crossdressing as a boy._"

For about a second, Akira panicked. Quietly, and without showing any expression on the outside, she felt her insides clench up tight around her stomach and her eyesight narrow down to the two accusers in front of her. She had just enough control to keep her face calm and breathing steady, but Akira was damn well positive that her heart rate had just jumped enormously in that very moment.

And then she realized that neither boy looked accusatory. Or, in fact, the least bit suspicious.

So Akira played with the benefit of the doubt.

"And you think I care because...?" Akira asked, raising on eyebrow and giving her two classmates a cool stare.

"Well, we don't," Tsuyoshi assured her, raising up his hands in a placating gesture. "It's not about the gossip. It's just that all my brother's girlfriend said was that one of the boys in the junior high was actually a girl. And we want to figure out who it is."

"And so we thought about it, but neither of us could think of any of the guys who were really, well, girly, y'know?" Ichiro continued. "But we realized that _you_ talk to a lot of people."

"Not just in our class, even," Tsuyoshi said, "cos all the girls think you're _so cute_--"

"Shut up," commanded Akira, glowering.

"_And_ most of the guys think you're cool enough too, so you'd know better than we would if someone was acting girly, we thought," finished Ichiro, watching Akira with pleading eyes. "C'mon, will you help us out? It's for a good cause!"

Akira stared at him. "No, it's not. It's for the cause of satisfying your curiosity."

"I think that's a good cause, personally," Ichiro admitted, shrugging.

"_And_ it'll be interesting," Tsuyoshi pressed. "And not to mention, completely awesome. We're the only ones who know about this, and if you help us figure out a way to make the girl reveal herself, it'll be like a good deed or something. We're preventing deception in our class."

Akira didn't say anything for a long while, still overwhelmed by the close call and fighting the urge to snicker uncontrollably. Then she said, "You two are just trying to stir up trouble."

"No, we're not," Ichiro protested, and then blanched at Akira's expression. He hastily corrected, "Okay, maybe we are, but there's a _girl_ crossdressing as a _boy_ in our very own school. We can't just let that be. I need to know who it is!"

"Exactly," agreed Tsuyoshi, nodding. "It's crucial to our continuing well-being as students."

Akira sighed, not even attempting to puzzle through just how utterly ridiculous this entire situation was. But it _was_ an interesting proposition, to be in control of a school-wide search for the girl who was crossdressing. Never mind the fact that Akira knew damn well who it was; the _point_ of the matter was that Ichiro and Tsuyoshi were probably going to be attempting this search whether she helped them or not, and Akira was never one to turn down the edge in any fight. (However difficult it might be not to burst out laughing every time the topic was brought up.)

Besides, and I must emphasize this as it is the moral, key point, and/or thesis of this story, she was bored.

"Well," Akira began, furrowing her brow and trying her best to look like she was thinking Very Deeply. "I can't think of anyone offhand whose been acting more girly than normal... well, except Takumi, but he does that anyway and I know he's a boy."

"Are you sure?" Ichiro asked.

Akira gave him an incredulous look. "I've lived with the kid for over a year now. Yes, I'm _sure_."

"But he could--"

"Seen him shirtless. Definitely a guy."

Tsuyoshi placated Ichiro with a gesture and said, "Okay, well, what next?"

"There are a lot of boys to consider," Akira said, considering the situation. "I mean, we have what, fifteen boys in our class? And the other class has fourteen, I think. Roughly 30 boys per grade, three grades in junior high to look through... that's about 90 boys that we have to watch. Cut four from that, it's still 86, so we have our work cut out for us."

"Cut four out?" Ichiro asked, frowning.

"Us," Tsuyoshi caught on, glancing at Akira for confirmation.

Akira nodded, "Yeah. I've already confirmed that Takumi isn't a girl, and unless one of you two are hiding something..."

"No!" Ichiro said, making a cross shape with his arms and backing up defensively. His ears tinged pink again, clearly mortified by the very insinuation that he was female. "Definitely not." Tsuyoshi made do with shaking his head calmly, clearly amused by Ichiro's reaction.

"Okay then," Akira accepted, trying not to roll her eyes. She glanced up at the clock instead and said, "School's almost out today, and I have art club to get to. I'll think about ways to tell boys and girls apart tonight and we can talk about it tomorrow." She frowned pensively and asked, "Do you mind if I tell Takumi? He's pretty good at getting stuff done, and I bet we could ask his older sister what she thinks."

"Sure," Tsuyoshi agreed, pulling Ichiro away from Akira's desk just as the teacher came by, Takumi trailing along behind her. "See you later," he called, and Ichiro waved even as the teacher gave both of them a chastising glare for being out of their seats.

Takumi sat down at his desk and held up a packet. "Finished!" he said cheerfully, looking a lot less tense than he had been earlier. He glanced over at where Tsuyoshi and Ichiro were now sitting, heads bent together and looking Very Secretive. "What did they want?" Takumi asked.

Before Akira could answer, the bell rang shrilly. As the rest of the class immediately started packing up their things, Akira replied, "I'll tell you tonight." At Takumi's nod, she threw her own things into her bag and made her way toward the door, Takumi following behind her.

This was certainly going to be an interesting week.

* * *

Takumi gently placed a bowl of partially mashed potatoes in front of Akira.

Right in front of her sketchpad. (Not quite on it, however, as Takumi had learn his lesson about _that_ long ago.)

Akira tilted her head skeptically and asked, "Creative expression, Takumi-kun?"

"I want to know what's going on," Takumi replied pleasantly, looking for all the world like he wasn't preventing Akira from drawing via vegetables. "You promised you'd tell me and you've been avoiding the subject all evening."

"I have not."

"Akira-kun, we had a twenty minute long conversation about different types of paint the last time I tried to bring it up," Takumi pointed out, raising an eyebrow at her. He didn't look the least bit accusatory, placidly waiting for Akira to build upon what he had already said. Akira was mildly surprised by how easily Takumi could handle her, though if pressed she would never say it out loud. A ninja had to have her pride, after all.

"And I maintain my position on oil-based paints, they're hell to work with--"

"_Akira-kun._"

Giving up, Akira sighed. She set the bowl of potatoes on the floor beside her. Takumi, without missing a beat, picked it back up and set it on the table in front of him as she explained, "Ichiro and Tsuyoshi have a new mission."

"Oh?" Takumi asked, grabbing a utensil from his apron and continuing to mash the potatoes in the bowl.

"Yeah," Akira acknowledged, "They want to figure out which boy in our school is actually a girl in disguise."

"What!" Takumi gasped, so startled that he accidentally jabbed the hand holding the bowl with the masher. "Ow-ow-ow, ow, what! They _know_? Why aren't you more upset about this?" His incredulous expression had Akira snickering loudly, bent over her sketchbook.

"Don't worry, I told them you weren't a girl," Akira said smoothly, holding up a hand to stop his protests. She gestured toward his potatoes, commanding, "Now go make dinner."

"Akira-_kun_!" Takumi protested, looking petulant.

"I'm joking!"

The look Takumi gave her told her it wasn't the girl comment he was concerned about (though he did stop mashing the potatoes and set the bowl aside, looking a bit self-conscious.) He asked, "Really, why aren't you more worried about this? If they're searching for a girl dressed as a boy, there aren't that many options."

"The reason I'm not worried," Akira explained, "is that they asked _me_ to help them figure out who it is, because I'm so popular."

Takumi blinked. Then, blankly, he asked, "_Really_?"

"Yep."

"_You're_ going to help search for the crossdressing girl?"

"Pretty much."

Takumi gaped at her for a long moment, clearly trying to wrap his brain around just how ironic the situation was. Slowly, he closed his mouth and reached slowly for the bowl of potatoes, clearly finding comfort in the mashing of food. As he began to mash, Akira saw his shoulders shaking and heard the beginnings of laughter trickling out of his mouth. Pretty soon, Takumi was full out snickering, bent over the bowl with one hand on his forehead.

"Yeah," Akira murmured, grabbing her pencil again and resuming her sketching with a small smirk. "That was about my reaction, too."

_End Chapter 1_


	2. Where Akira Devises A Plan

**Title**: Don't Worry, I Told Them You're Not A Girl (Now Go Make Dinner)  
**Part**: 2/?  
**Series**: Mai-HiME  
**Rating**: PG-13  
**Pairing**: Akira/Takumi, various others mentioned  
**Warnings**: Crossdressing, gender confusion, light swearing, Akira being bored, and too many gender stereotypes to count.  
**Notes**: Constructive criticism, as always, is encouraged and loved!  
**Previous Chapters**: Chapter One: It Begins (Or Jumps On Board Sometime In the Middle)

* * *

_Chapter Two: Where Akira Devises A Plan (Which Is Incredibly Stupid, But She Does It Anyway)_

The first order of business, Akira thought, was to figure out exactly how Tsuyoshi and Ichiro had heard about the girl crossdresser.

Given that there were relatively few people who knew, it wasn't exactly a _difficult_ ordeal to work it out. Besides Takumi, the only ones who knew her secret were the other former HiME and her family. She instantly scratched her family off the list; even if one of her female cousins didn't like her, family was family, particularly when one was an Okuzaki (or related to one.) Okuzakis' kept family secrets. Besides, her father had been discreet; very few cousins even knew that she was crossdressing, and those who did were training under the banner of ninja, protecting her.

Which left the HiME. Akira quickly ran through her (albeit limited) knowledge of her fellow world defenders for a person who didn't really like her, would have a boyfriend in high school, enjoyed causing trouble, and would find forcing Akira out of hiding to be very amusing.

It was a short list.

So Akira found herself perched on a ledge outside the girls' dormitory at seven in the morning. She was sitting crosslegged, sketchbook balanced on her lap, looking for all the world like she was focused on the batch of pretty wildflowers growing just off of the path. Every so often a girl or two would exit, give Akira a startled glance, and either blink or blush depending on her age. Akira realized that she might well be starting another rumor with this plan, but shrugged it off. It was unavoidable, though, because she didn't have the time or energy to go searching around after school.

Luckily, the person Akira was waiting for exited within fifteen minutes, and froze for a moment before smiling wryly and sliding up to the ledge.

"Are you waiting for your girlfriend?" Nao asked, fluttering her eyelashes flirtatiously, mocking her. "That's rather desperate, don't you think?"

Akira stared back at her, unruffled.

"Oh, come on, spill," pestered Nao, her pleading expression only belied by the smirk in her eyes. "Having relationship troubles? Oh! I know," Nao said, tapping her finger against her cheek, "You're having boyfriend problems, aren't you? I don't think his precious big sister can help you, hon, she's way too obsessed with him herself."

"Yuuki," Akira greeted coolly, shutting her sketchbook and trying her best to ignore the violent impulse that sounded at the mention of Takumi. "We need to talk."

"Oh wow," Nao said, eyes widening in mock shock. "Are you here for me?"

"You know why I'm here."

"I have no idea, little boy -- enlighten me."

"Got a new boyfriend?" Akira said, tempted to play it Nao's way and act sweet, but deciding against it. She went with her usual straightforward manner. "Last name of Akiyama?"

Nao rolled her eyes. "I don't date, Okuzaki." Then her expression turned coy as she added, "Unless _you'd_ like to, I hear you're quite the catch."

"Save it, Yuuki," Akira said, sighing in exasperation. She jumped off the ledge and turned to face Nao. The red-haired girl was just as thin as she was, but nearly half a foot taller. Still, the way Nao slouched gave off a shorter impression, easily eliminating any intimidation Nao could have had. "You told Akiyama Tsuyoshi about my personal business."

With that, Nao finally gave up the sickly sweet persona she had been working toward. Immediately, her expression grew pinched, looking at Akira like a cat watching a particularly troublesome mouse that had _finally_ fallen into her trap. She smirked and played with her hair, waiting and watching Akira expectantly. When Akira didn't follow up her statement, choosing instead to stare impassively at Nao, the older girl scoffed and said, "I don't see what the big deal is, Okuzaki. I merely told him the truth."

Akira felt her shoulders tightened, and she swallowed down just how much she did _not_ like this girl. Coolly, Akira countered, "We made a deal, Yuuki. All of the HiME. We keep everyone's secrets in exchange for no one getting revenge. Which, I might add, is the only reason I haven't kicked your ass for attacking Takumi yet. Do you _really_ want to nullify that deal?"

The gleeful look in Nao's eyes flickered for a moment before resuming, and she replied, "You'd beat up a classmate? Right in front of the school?" She laughed into her hand, adding, "I'm sure the administration will be just fine with _that_."

"No," Akira corrected, cutting off Nao's amused look. "I'd wait for awhile until you've nearly forgotten, and then I'd challenge you. Well away from school, and probably when you're on one of your little _excursions_ with whatever hapless boy you've managed to seduce this time." Nao blinked once, startled, and Akira allowed herself a small, victorious grin. "Oh, Mikoto told me about your secrets too, Yuuki. And I don't think anyone will be surprised about a girl getting beat up when she's trying to con guys in a bad part of the city."

She sent a grateful thought to Mikoto, who had given Akira all the information she could possibly need about the other HiME one afternoon when Mai was over visiting Takumi. Guileless though the girl may be, Mikoto certainly knew a _lot_ about people.

Nao stared at her dispassionately, but Akira could tell that she had struck home by the way Nao's hands tightened into fist on her hips, and how Nao suddenly straightened up to make use of her height. Too late, though, now that Akira had solidly gained the upper hand.

"Just be happy I'm honorable," Akira said, adding one final blow. "Or I wouldn't bother even telling you when I planned on attacking you. I'd do something like you did, and just spring out from nowhere at a defenseless person. But unlike you, I have my pride."

Akira was pleased to note that Nao, while a spiteful bitch at times, was not lacking in her courage. Momentarily setback by Akira's threats, Nao recovered quickly and slumped back again, sighing loudly and leaning against the ledge. Around their quiet conversation, a few school girls had still trickled out and given them odd looks, but for the most part, they were alone. It was still too early for most students to be out, which made Akira wonder faintly why Nao was even out yet? She hadn't expected the girl for at least another half hour, going by Nao's reputation as a scholarly slacker, but perhaps the rumors were wrong.

"Okay, Okuzaki, you've made your point," Nao said. She shrugged helplessly, though her eyes remained clear, and continued, "But the damage has already been done. Do you want my _apologies_ or something?" She said the word like it was dirty.

"No," Akira replied, trying not to make a face. "I don't really care if you're sorry or not. But I want your help."

Nao blinked, interest piqued by the odd turn of events, and asked, "Oh _really_? With what?"

"Nothing yet," Akira explained, "but I want your word that you'll help me out when I ask for it. Only once. And it won't be anything humiliating." Akira paused, considering, and corrected, "Well, not humiliating for _you_, anyway."

Taking in the new information, Nao looked at Akira appraisingly, as if she was trying to decide whether or not Akira was spiteful enough to get true revenge for what had happened. Akira waited, revealing nothing, and finally Nao seemed to decide that Akira's deal was legit. She smirked as though she had won the argument and agreed, "Fine, Okuzaki. One time, and if it's anything mortifying, I'm out."

"Your funeral," Akira sent back, and at Nao's suddenly slitted glare, Akira smirked and said, "I'll contact you later. Bye, Yuuki."

With that, she turned on a heel and walked away, keeping her pace cool and sedate. She didn't hear Nao following behind her, but Akira could feel the older girl's lingering gaze on her back. Finally she turned a corner and allowed herself to use her speed, ducking into the surrounding woodland and dashing quickly away, sketchbook tucked securely under her arm.

Now, to figure out what she was going to do about her classmates.

* * *

Takumi assumed that something had happened when Akira entered the classroom with a particularly smug look in her eyes, like a cat who has just snatched a rather evasive canary. She was scowling as she normally did, but this morning it was small enough that some of the girls followed Akira with their eyes, intrigued once again. (And he'd have to remember to laugh at her about that, if she stayed in such a good mood.)

"Have fun sketching?" Takumi asked politely when she set her things down on the seat beside him.

Akira shot him a grin. "Of course I did." She didn't notice the girls behind her staring blatantly, but Takumi did, and he ducked his head down to keep from laughing. For some reason, Akira's popularity with girls was a source of never ending amusement for him; even when he had still thought Akira was a boy, it was a sore point for the gruff boy, and now that Takumi knew her secret, all those hostile reactions to the teasing made much more sense. Now, however, Akira took the teasing better. Takumi knew, after all, and they both knew that even Akira _did_ like women as well, it didn't matter because Takumi was her something-or-other-that-wasn't-quite-defined. They were both in on the jokes now and the shared secret was suddenly more amusing than harsh.

Besides, something about having other girls flirt with your girlfriend (of a sort) more that you was painfully entertaining.

"Run into anyone while you were doing it?" asked Takumi.

"Not telling you."

"You _said_ you would," Takumi protested.

"No," Akira countered, "What I said was 'Stop shoving food down my throat' and I cleverly avoided the conversation. It's not my fault you interpreted it wrong."

Takumi eyed her sourly. "Y'know, I kind of want to keep your bento for _myself_ now."

"You'll get fat," Akira replied smoothly, shrugging as though it didn't matter to her at all.

"I made it with octopus today," Takumi said, marking an invisible tally for him when he saw Akira's eyes narrow, for he knew (and she knew that he knew) that she liked fish a lot. "_And_ squid. And the rest of the fried rice we had yesterday. I bet it's going to be _delicious_."

Akira regarded him silently, and Takumi consciously didn't grin as he saw her warring with herself. But he wasn't quite done yet.

"And I think," he began, tapping his chin pensively, "I think that Sister gave me some of the chocolate cake that she made yesterday--"

"Okay, _fine_, you win," Akira declared, slumping down in her chair and glowering at him. "I'll tell you. But you had _better_ not be lying about the cake."

"I wouldn't do that," Takumi protested.

"Of course you wouldn't," Akira said confidently. Takumi felt a brief swell of pleasure before Akira bluntly added, "You can't lie. You get all blotchy and your leg twitches."

Takumi frowned. "That's not true! I can lie!" His leg twitched on reflex and Takumi glared down at it, betrayed.

"No, you really can't."

"Can so."

"Can not."

"I can s-- hey, wait, you're just distracting me again!"

Akira snickered to herself, amused at Takumi's outraged expression. Then she shrugged, saying, "I'll tell you after school, it involves one of those... before things." She was vague, but Takumi understood that she meant something about the HiME, or related to them, at least. He really hadn't doubted that she would eventually tell him, but it was nice to have confirmation of the fact. Because quite frankly, if Akira didn't want to tell him something, she just _didn't_, rather than resorting to playing games.

"Besides," she continued, ripping a couple sheets of paper out of her binder, "I have to give the two morons their assignments."

"That's rude," chastised Takumi, checking for Tsuyoshi and Ichiro's presence as he said so.

"Deal," Akira snorted.

Takumi sighed, leaning over to check out the papers as Akira scribbled instructions on them. "So you're really going through with this?"

"Why not?" Akira replied, not looking up. "It'll be amusing. Besides, what I'm doing now isn't anything big, it's just reconnaissance work."

"Oh?" Takumi murmured, intrigued.

Akira shrugged, "Writing down which guys they think are the girliest. Which," she mused, "for Ichiro will probably be a couple boys that he makes fun of on a near daily basis... and Satou Shin, because he beat him out on the baseball team last year and Ichiro's petty like that. That plus whoever he runs into today, I guess. I think Tsuyoshi will actually give a decent list, but I don't think he knows enough people outside our grade to effectively judge."

Takumi gave her a long look and said, "You know, I thought you were just going to mess around with them, but it's almost like you're taking this seriously."

"Well, controlled chaos is work," Akira replied coolly, with a managerial air. "I hate doing things halfway."

With that, Akira grabbed the papers and stalked off to give them to their classmates. Takumi shook his head and mused quietly to himself, "I wouldn't expect anything less from you, secret ninja."

"Heard that," Akira called back.

Takumi rolled his eyes.

* * *

The instant Okuzaki was out of earshot, Ichiro grabbed the paper and scrawled in 'Satou Shin', underlined it twice and smirked broadly. "God, I hate that kid."

Tsuyoshi rolled his eyes. "He's not really that girly, you know..."

"He's such a woman it _hurts_."

"Whatever you say," Tsuyoshi said, pondering over his own paper with a more serious outlook. For a moment, he regretted telling Ichiro about what his brother's girlfriend had said; he was _pretty_ sure that she had just been playing with him, now that he thought about it, but at the moment she had seemed so serious that he simply _had_ to call Ichiro to conspire about it. He knew part of his hesitation was Ichiro's insistence on including Okuzaki, though. To be honest, Tsuyoshi was rather intimidated by the boy, no matter how popular he was. (Or perhaps because of that.) But Ichiro was insistent and really couldn't be argued with once he had his mind set on something, and he seemed to think that Okuzaki was the right choice for this, no matter how irritable and (just a little bit) scary the boy was.

Though Tsuyoshi had to admit, glancing down at the paper in his hands with terse instructions written out, Okuzaki _was_ very efficient. He had even written in, 'Don't just write down people you don't like, Ichiro,' in the instructions. (Not that Ichiro bothered to read it, but at least the thought was there.)

"And that kid, whatshisname, Hino?" Ichiro was muttering, ignoring the teacher as she began class. "He's so _quiet_ all the time, and he's horrible at sports. That's girly, right? I mean, boys are good at sports."

"Yeah, good point," Tsuyoshi whispered back, grateful for their seat near the back. "What about Osamu from the other class? He _cooks_."

"What, like, food?"

"Well, his dad's a chef."

"Only girls cook," Ichiro declared quietly, nodding in an authoritative way. "Unless it's like ramen or... I don't know, really spicy curry or something. Put him down."

Tsuyoshi did, and winced as the teacher glared at them sharply. He waited a moment and then hissed, "What about Takeda?"

"Dude, you even have to _ask_?"

"...good point."

By lunchtime, Tsuyoshi had a list that covered about half of his page. Ichiro's page was even longer and covered with little stick figure doodles of certain boys in dresses, shrieking girlishly about shoes and being saved from dragons. Thankfully, Okuzaki sent Takumi to collect the papers instead of coming himself. Tsuyoshi liked Takumi; he was always pleasant and generally listened to whatever either one of them said without any kind of presumptions. To be honest, if Okuzaki hadn't already confirmed otherwise, Tsuyoshi would have thought that Takumi was a good choice for suspicion, but only because he had never before met a boy so... proper. Not to mention that Takumi couldn't even kick a ball straight.

In fact, Tsuyoshi thought as Takumi spoke with Ichiro, grinning as Ichiro ranted about 'that bastard Shin', Takumi really _was_ very girly. More girly than most of the people on his list, actually. He cooked (and Tsuyoshi knew this because he overheard he and Okuzaki talking about it) and he was quiet, and he always wore very nice, tidy clothes. He was very polite, too, and was oddly pretty for a boy. (Tsuyoshi would never say so out loud, but it was one of those things that was rather obvious.)

Now that Tsuyoshi thought about it, the only reason that he hadn't written Takumi down was Okuzaki's assurance. Along with the knowledge that Okuzaki might hurt him if he disagreed, of course, but that really just came with the territory. Still, Tsuyoshi couldn't quite shake the desire to write Takumi's name on the sheet, but the very fact that Takumi was helping them out on this stopped him in the end.

Still, Tsuyoshi regarded Takumi with a frown as he walked away with the sheets, and made sure to keep the slight boy in mind, just in case Okuzaki had been lying to them. Tsuyoshi wasn't about to be played for a fool.

* * *

"Oh, hey, they didn't write your name down."

"You _told_ them I was a boy, stop sounding so surprised."

"Honestly, Takumi-kun, it surprises me _every day_."

"...that's it, I'm eating your cake."

"Hey!"

* * *

_End Chapter 2_


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